The Secret To Growing Your Business Fast

One of the most common questions I get asked is: “How can I grow my business FAST? What are the best shortcuts to success?” 

Now I think you know what’s coming here…

If you are spending lots of time looking for shortcuts and the elusive “silver bullet” that will change your business overnight, then you are wasting precious time and energy.

Now, there may be some “quick wins” in your business; however searching for it erratically, you will most likely never find it. It’s a bit like when you wake from a fantastic dream and try and remember it. You know it’s there… but the more you try and remember it, the further away it gets. So what’s the solution then?

Quite simply it’s the following:

STOP focusing on the result and START focusing on the process. 

I like to think of it like trying to lose weight. When you look at that in its purest form, it is a process of reducing the number of calories (energy) in vs what energy you expend daily. That’s it. No more to it! 

Fad diets, intermittent fasting, keto, eating nothing but cabbage soup. These are just tactics to aid the process of ending up in a calorie deficit.

Cabbage soup might work for a few days, but it isn’t sustainable nor a healthy way to live.  A far better way is to eat properly, in moderation and stay within your calorie target.

Anyway, now isn’t the time for me to start playing PT, but I wanted to use something universally relatable to illustrate my point. 

The process, the daily habits on how you spend your time in your business is the key to this.  It’s about getting to the end of the day and knowing with confidence that you have followed a plan, worked towards a goal and done the stuff that matters in your business. Ending each day KNOWING you are a little bit closer to achieving your goal.

If you are finishing your day feeling you have spent it just putting out fires, feel more stressed than you started, then I can assure you this is the biggest problem you are facing.  

The silver bullet you are looking for is to change the process of your day-to-day. 

“You make it sound so simple, but what is this process you speak of?”

Well, let me give my: Top 3 of the principles of this process:

Planning

Planning your week is one of the top things I can suggest. Some point at the beginning of the week is best, or maybe a Sunday night. One hour is usually sufficient but allow more as you begin.  Plan your week realistically and allow sufficient time for everything that needs to be done. Doing this will also set the expectation of what actually can be achieved, and what cannot.

Get everything into one list

Do you like lists? Me too, I have loads of them. I have notebooks, scraps of paper, reminders on my phone, screenshots of ideas etc. What I do during the weekly planning session though is consolidate everything into one list. From this, I end up with a single stream of tasks I need to do. Even email goes into this list, so I really do start each week with the magical, and often believed to be mythical “Inbox Zero.”

Everything in this stream is then separated into 2 categories.  

The chores list is the stuff that is all the day to day stuff I HAVE to do. Respond to emails, expenses, phone calls, and of course working with clients etc. Do I think working with clients is a chore? Of course not. I class it as a chore because it HAS to be done. This is what is referred to as “Working In” my business. No getting around it. A chore doesn’t mean boring in this context. But solely working on chores for too long can be unfulfilling if your business is standing still or worse still, going backwards. 

Create time, weekly, to work ON your Business

The growth list, however, is the exciting one. Exciting because this is what most people miss out on, as they only reactively work on the chores. It’s “Working On” my business. My growth list is the stuff that I want to try out, a list of the ideas that I have. I set time in my diary to work on my growth list. This is the time where I stop fighting fires, and I exclusively work from these growth ideas. 

I bet you can think of at least three things off the top of your head right now you have wanted to try out and feel will be significant for your business. How long have those ideas been lingering?  Having this time means you WILL get to try them, as you are solely going to work on this stuff.

To Recap

So that’s it. If you are not spending time planning your week then start now. Put things in your diary and be realistic about what you can achieve. Get everything into one place, and allow yourself some time to work on the ideas you have to grow your business. This is the process that will win every time.